Despite Sounders FC record, MLS attendance down

Sounders FC set a league record for average attendance. Demand for tickets prompted the team to add 3,000 seats for the playoffs. The Sounders can’t keep people away.

Not so in the rest of the MLS. Despite the dynamic boost from the Sounders, league attendance was down 2.6 percent in 2009. Without the Sounders’ record-setting gatherings, league attendance would have been down 9 percent.

The tight playoff race did bring out more fans. October attendance was up 4.6 percent.

Individual clubs Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC, Houston Dynamo and the San Jose Earthquakes had an uptick in attendance. Though a caveat about San Jose’s bump: The club played in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park prior to a Barcelona-Chivas USA match which drew 61,572. If that figure is removed, the Quakes attendance dropped 21.8 percent according to SI.com.

The three teams with the largest drop from the previous season are New England (21.9 percent), New York (21.5) and Los Angeles (21.5).

Despite the attendance reduction, MLS has approved expansion to Vancouver and Portland in 2011. The league is hoping the geographic proximity of the three Northwest clubs will develop into derby rivals, much like occurs in European soccer. As MLS Commissioner Don Garber put it at the beginning of the season, “No one in the Premier League has to travel 3,000 miles to play a match.”